Vacation Thoughts

Back from an amazing week in the Golan Heights, in Israel's northeast corner. Some random thoughts:

• I always thought that Hawaii had the ultimate weather, but the Golan was indescribably great: 80 during the day, 70 at night, with a cooling breeze all the time.

• The town where we stayed – Ramat Magshimim – is just a few miles from the Syrian border. So I took a 40 km bike ride from the Syrian border to Lake Kinneret. Exhilarating!

• One aspect of Israeli life that I've always treasured is the relative safety of day-to-day life. I can send my 7-year-old alone to the grocery store, and have my teenage daughter walk home after midnight, without fear of anything weird happening. Our stay in the Golan was even more carefree; we marveled at how nothing gets locked up – not bikes, not homes, not even the Holy Ark containing the expensive Torah scrolls.

• This area of the Golan was overrun by Syrian invaders on the first day of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. It's a good thing Israel didn't cave into all the pressure and hand the Golan over to Syria's Assad regime. Imagine how worthless that piece of paper would be right now.

• The family whose home we rented was totally hospitable and treated us like kings – offering full use of everything from toys, games and books, to bikes and washing machine. They fulfilled the number one rule of a good host: Making us feel at home!

About this Blog

Shraga's Blog presents an eclectic mix of insights on current topics through the lens of Torah Judaism.
The author, Rabbi Shraga Simmons, holds a degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin, and
rabbinic ordination from the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem. He is the senior editor of Aish.com and the director
of JewishPathways.com. He was the founding editor of HonestReporting.com and is the author of a new book,
David & Goliath: The Explosive Inside Story of Media Bias in
the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (2012).